The strike of coronavirus or why agility is now important more than ever

Katja Hrovatin, Nina Zupančič24.03.2020Marketing, Optilife

Coronavirus – a pandemic that has stopped the whole world. A pandemic that will change the course of history and our daily lives. But, at the same time, it is also a pandemic that will force every company, big or small, to think about their short-term and especially long-term strategy and force them into keeping their company stable and agile. The companies that are not able to change their strategies (that they were perhaps following for years and years) and adapt to the current situation will undoubtedly face a shorter life span or at least a greater loss of income compared with those companies that are able to think and of course act differently.

THE QUARANTINE IS HERE – NOW WHAT?

The pandemic has challenged all of us – meaning also our clients and the entire Optiweb. The most important question was how to change their online presence and communication of their brand and at the same time maintain their income, which is vital for the company’s survival. With quick changes our clients have responded to the needs of their customers and clients, each in their own way. Below, you can find only a couple of the “good practices” of our clients, who have faced the situation the right way.

EMPLOYMENT PORTALS

With the current situation, HR, HR agencies and employment portals are facing a special challenge, which is presenting a real turnabout in the labour market. Saša Boštjančič, the CEO of Moja zaposlitev, which owns the employment portal Optius, and her team have always been an added value to all businesses who used their portal for acquiring new employees with their constant willingness to help and to offer answers to all their questions. This time, they went a step further and prepared a series of webinars for all HR employees. Because they understand that the financial situation in the majority of companies isn’t easy, they’ve enabled free job advertisements for all their employers.

At their webinars, they are hosting experts who talk about the most current topics for all employers and employees.

They also haven’t forgotten about all those who are now searching for a job. For them, they are preparing a series of articles that will help them in organizing their remote work, give them advice about potential job searches and opportunities and give them ideas on how to best spend their time in isolation.

LANGUAGE COURSES

Once the authorities closed all schools, the latter were forced to move everything online. Soon, providers of language courses, preparations for final exams and tutoring also followed their example. Our client Horizont, one of the leading providers of high-school and college tutoring and preparations for final exams, moved all their activities online just a couple of days after they were forced to close their physical location. Not only are they tutoring their clients online, they also offer a 10% discount on all online classes.

Another client of ours, LanguageSitter®, showed the same agile approach with their one-on-one language courses that are completely adjusted for each individual client. They have once again proven their flexibility when they moved all their courses online, prepared a landing page and lowered their price for almost 50% of the original price. But since they are well aware of the gravity of the current situation, they also wanted to do something for all the pupils who are having trouble with English. Their LanguageSitters will therefore offer free tutoring classes of English or any other language until the schools are once again reopened.

LanguageSitter® managed to prepare a custom landing page in only a couple of hours.

HOME EQUIPMENT

Our client Inotherm had just launched a new website when Slovenia declared a state of pandemic, which had a negative impact on the visit of their booth at the prominent fair “Dom”. The world wide web therefore offered them an opportunity to present to their potential customers their redesigned website with its front door configurator. There, they can create their dream entrance with only a few clicks and submit an inquiry. At this point, Inotherm’s responsive sales team comes in – in only 24 hours they respond with a custom offer and take over all further communication with the customer.

Inotherm is also one of the first Slovenian manufacturing companies that decided to put the health of their employees first and close the entire company.

The company Dom24 was also quick to respond to the health risk that the virus presents to its employees. After immediately closing their physical store, the furniture provider from Sežana also wanted to reduce the amount of contact its employed delivery personnel has with the customers by offering an additional discount to everyone who decides not to choose COD. With this, it wishes to reduce any contact that might be required when dealing with cash on delivery.

Dom24 tries to keep everything running smoothly and safe – for them as well as their clients.

LOCAL FOOD SUPPLIERS & OUR SPECIAL PROJECT

Since our CEO Miha is active in several entrepreneurial groups and always wishes to land a hand when possible, he also wanted to help our clients and suppliers who lost their work literally overnight. This is how we’ve come up with our project “Domača trgOWinca” or Local e-shop, where we especially want to help the local food suppliers to preserve their income, change their current business models and turn this situation to their advantage. We have already started cooperating with E-branjevka and Kmetija Pustotnik and we’re already developing a custom e-shop for the latter, which will help Kmetija Pustotnik present their offer online and at the same time optimize their process of orders and delivery.

Are you also among the local food suppliers or happen to know of someone who would like to start selling online in only two days? Then don’t hesitate and find all the information on our landing page (in Slovenian).

WHEN ISOLATION OFFERS YOU A CHANCE TO GROW

We are surely facing several weeks of remote work or perhaps even a complete absence of work. But perhaps now is the perfect timing to do all the things we’ve been avoiding or postponing because there was always something more important to do. Perhaps now is the perfect time to optimize our website from a UX point of view or to optimize our website content from an SEO point of view or perhaps write a blog article or maybe it is even time to decide on a completely fresh approach of your Facebook posts and ads.

Here is where we come in. Because we want to share our expertise, we will be publishing a new blog post every week where you will be able to find some practical tips on how to optimize your website or advertising activities – completely for free or at least with minimum investment. Once all this blows over, you will be even more prepared for new victories and in the meantime it will help prevent endless hours of idleness. So make sure to follow us and if you need any help, we are always here for you! :)

Katja Hrovatin

You won’t find Katja in our offices anymore, but we know that no matter where she is now, she is doing a phenomenal job. We’ve kept a piece of them with us as a memory. :)

Nina Zupančič

You won’t find Nina in our offices anymore, but we know that no matter where she is now, she is doing a phenomenal job. We’ve kept a piece of them with us as a memory. :)

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The strike of coronavirus or why agility is now important more than ever

THE QUARANTINE IS HERE – NOW WHAT?

EMPLOYMENT PORTALS

LANGUAGE COURSES

HOME EQUIPMENT

LOCAL FOOD SUPPLIERS & OUR SPECIAL PROJECT

WHEN ISOLATION OFFERS YOU A CHANCE TO GROW

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Katja Hrovatin

Nina Zupančič

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